Stafford offers free space for fall festival

Published 5:30 am, Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The city of Stafford will provide the entire Stafford Centre ballroom free for the 2007 International Festival of Fort Bend on Oct. 21.

Neeta Sane, festival president, asked City Council June 20 to expand the space provided for the festival in view of the event's growing size, and City Council agreed.

In February, council had approved a $10,000 grant for the inaugural festival and provided 10,000 square feet in the ballroom free. Now, the festival will have the entire 20,000 square-foot ballroom and a 1.5-acre outdoor festival field for its events from noon-7 p.m.

The festival has grown "in leaps and bounds," since the first presentation made to the council, Sane said.

"We now have reservations for over 40 ethnic arts, crafts, food and sponsor booths," she said.

Geetha Ravula, one of the event coordinators, said children's participation has been growing rapidly, and 20 different organizations would bring about 50 children each for performances. A section of the ballroom may be too crowded to host the events and have the booths, she said. The festival will include an international fashion show.

An entertainment company will provide rides, moonwalks and other carnival games for children, and the festival field would be required for housing the rides, Ravula said.

Sugar Creek Baptist Church has donated $5,000 in cash for the festival and will provide in-kind contributions worth $12,000, Sane said.

The city of Missouri City has agreed to provide a case of 1,000 printed balloons, besides providing publicity through the Missouri City TV, Sane said.

The city of Sugar Land is not making any contribution because city policy requires that an event be held in Sugar Land to be eligible for any assistance, she said.

The festival committee is awaiting certification from the Internal Revenue Service as a nonprofit group so that donations to the festival would be tax-exempt.

The nonprofit group hopes to draw an estimated 5,000 people to the festival. The goal is to bring the county's diverse ethnic groups together.

Community partners include Fort Bend County Chinese American Association, the Filipino Organization, Thai Texas Association, Vietnamese Community of Houston, Federation of Italian American organizations, Nigerian Foundation of Houston, Serbian Culture Center, Spanish School of Dance, Anjali Center for Performing Arts and Houston Community College System.